Massive contract for the pens? None were overly ridiculous like what the nyr and blackhawks did with redden, roszival and brian campbell. Good to see some local leafs people acknowlege the swamp the leafs have resided in for a few years withtheir end of article comments.

Massive contract for the pens? None were overly ridiculous like what the nyr and blackhawks did with redden, roszival and brian campbell. Good to see some local leafs people acknowlege the swamp the leafs have resided in for a few years withtheir end of article comments.

Media just waiting to write the penguin demise. Again.

Exactly. And Sid, Malkin, Orpik, Whitney, Gonchar and MAF etc, all make arguably LESS than they would on another team - this was somehow missing from that article.

The Penguins can expect similar roster churn next summer, with nine more unrestricted free agents.

Sounds like a daunting number of free agents, but look who actually makes up that group. Sabourin, back-up goalie to replaced by Curry. Scuderi, Sydor, and Gill, the bottom three on a depth chart of eight NHL defensemen, with Goligoski to step into the lineup to complete a group of six NHL defensemen signed through next season. I guess he's counting Taffe and Beech - two fourth liners who might not even make the team. Finally there are Fedotenko, Sykora, and Satan, wingers on each of the top three lines, and probably the only significant spots that will be left open. I feel optimistic that Caputi can replace Fedotenko next season. To me, this great impending exodus looks like only two players of note that can't be replaced internally... and by my calculations, even if the Pens extend Staal on a ~$5 million per deal, they should have $8-9 million to work with to replace or retain Sykora and Satan. They can try to paint the Pens as a salary cap casualty waiting to happen, but it looks to me that the Pens are working under the salary cap the right way, not mismanaging their resources like Tampa did.

I love that quote so much I want to make love to it. Nobody gets to publicly call out these clowns when they write this stuff, but just because you wrote a book about Brodeur doesn't mean that you can expect to root for the Leafs and not have someone question your idea of "good management" when you put down the reigning conference champs. The team is a balancing act, to be sure, but no more so than a lot of others. How many UFA's does Detroit have next season? Oh yeah. 10. Next season? 7 UFA 4 RFA. Zetterberg is in line for a biig pay raise this offseason. Franzen will make more money. And Detroit will be more than fine because they can replace the cap casualties with guys from within. Their situation is no different but since the hockey world collectively licks the shoes of the Wings' organization they're never used in comparisons like this. Instead he chooses to cite Tampa Bay who, from where I'm standing, just saw the entire front office cleared with one fell swoop and 'poof' a decent team is beginning to merge from the ashes. This is only as substantial a problem as he makes it on teams that are mismanaged; if their wasn't a passable plan in place Shero would have made cuts where necessary.

Last edited by Samsdog on Tue Sep 23, 2008 1:38 pm, edited 2 times in total.

Massive contract for the pens? None were overly ridiculous like what the nyr and blackhawks did with redden, roszival and brian campbell. Good to see some local leafs people acknowlege the swamp the leafs have resided in for a few years withtheir end of article comments.

Media just waiting to write the penguin demise. Again.

It's the Short, Bald, Angry Canadian demographic being heard from again!! Damien Cox and Pierre MaGuire should go shine each other's heads, since the both trot out the same tired logic.

As much as I supported the idea of bringing back Malone or Hossa, what the Pens did was walk away from one deal that WAS too much money/term and get the break of having the guy who really WOULD have cash-strapped us turn his back on us.

This guy writes about committing to Crosby, Malkin and Fleury this off-season like we just signed Alex Steen, Nic Antropov and Vesa Toskala for the same $$ and term!! These are SUPERstars Damien. They are locked up for below current market value.

There is a decent stagger in there as well so that the Pens, should they draft and develop their "star" winger, will be able to decide on which of the current stars should finish their career(s) here and which should be let go in order to sign that "next one" to their second deal in the league.

Things only get very touchy when Staal comes due off of what hopefully is a huge year. Even so, in future years we have Gonchar's deal ending, Whitney becoming more tradeable and young guys like Letang and Goligoski ready to assume more responsibility.

What alternative is he advocating anyway? Let them walk or sign short term deals? For what, so we can have the "flexibility" to go out and overspend on has beens like Markus Naslund or bums like Micheal Ryder? Oh wait, how long 'til Jeff Finger's deal is up? We should be saving for him.

I have no problem with what he wrote. It's no secret that with some high-paid superstars in the fold, the Penguins are going to have some roster turnover and will have to have good prospects and signings to keep up the success. This guy just happens to not be optimistic that we can keep doing it. He's entitled to his opinion, we're entitled to ours.

good thing this team is magical and anything can happen. We have maybe the best 2 players in the league and a top ranked goalie. Not to mention solid defense all around. of course a few weak points but hell i like our chances as long as everyone has the strength physically and mentally.

lol. Guess he missed Game 5 SCF in multiple-overtimes where Fleury saved 28 shots until we scored.

I actually can't argue with him on that, even if I don't care for how it's worded. Fleury still has to prove that he can play at a high level consistently. His Game 5 performance was phenomenal but it doesn't entitle him to bonafide status. He still has some maturing to do to eliminate some of the mistakes he has been prone to.

lol. Guess he missed Game 5 SCF in multiple-overtimes where Fleury saved 28 shots until we scored.

I actually can't argue with him on that, even if I don't care for how it's worded. Fleury still has to prove that he can play at a high level consistently. His Game 5 performance was phenomenal but it doesn't entitle him to bonafide status. He still has some maturing to do to eliminate some of the mistakes he has been prone to.

I say the same thing. It's worded poorly, but MAF had a good streak. To be an elite goalie, it has to be done over the course of years where you consistently win and play like a top level goalie. We saw a couple months, so let's hope it continues.

I have the same skepticism of Orpik. There's a reason he's not making 5M+... he had a couple good months after years of uninspiring play. I hope what we saw in the playoffs continues, but I wouldn't consider him a sure shot top pairing guy right this second.

Love that line. The guy raises some points. I do agree with Cox that Fleury hasn't proved anything definitively especially after a sparklingly average game in game 6 but on the other hand, I really don't think that roster turnover on the 3rd line is that big a deal. And my earlier post alludes to the rest of my feelings. I just had to put that quote from the article up.